Working with a group of pupils from North Lanarkshire last week proved to be one of my favourite groups of the year – good listeners, keen to develop themselves, hungry for learning, fun to be with and they didn’t even complain when I talked their ears off about nature!
I soon realised that they all had a healthy interest in the environment and began to introduce each area of the John Muir Award. Here’s how it went:
To discover a wild place, I introduced them to everything from the forest and woodlands, the seas and lochs to Glen Nevis and its surrounding crags. Along the way they encountered bogs, sphagnum, wood sorrel and even some old man’s beard! For those of you not in the know, it’s a type of flower!
As part of our exploration of a wild place, we began in the centre grounds and later ventured out into the wild Lochans, Glenfinnan and the spectacular Loch Shiel. We also saw the new hydro-electric development at Lochaber to try and better understand environmentally friendly energy generation. Each of these places gave us the opportunity to see and understand a new type of environment. And to try and conserve these environments, we took part in a litter pick and spent a session constructing bird feeders in Glen Duhlie. I expect to see some rather fat birdies in Glen Duhlie on my next visit – the feeders were enormous! We also spent time learning about and discussing the theory of conservation, including energy and waste reduction, recycling, supermarket packaging and invasive species of plants.
To wrap up the week, the pupils delivered an impressive presentation on their environmental knowledge. A thoroughly outstanding week!
Rich Hill, Senior Instructor, Loch Eil
